Such consumer units may be in particular cooking vessels for use in induction ovens. The mode of operation of an induction oven is based on the fact that such cooking vessels exhibit metal layers, in which heat is produced by means of eddy current generation by induction owing to the nonreactive resistance of the metal layers. Such a metal layer may be, for example, a metallic pot base, an aluminum shell or else a metal layer which has been glazed into a porcelain shell. Said metal layers make it possible to rapidly heat food by means of a high level of power transmission. However, there is often the difficulty of achieving a desired heat distribution, such as homogeneous heating, for example, over a relatively large area of the cooking vessel. This problem in particular arises from the fact that it is difficult primarily with the flat coil arrangements often used for producing the required electromagnetic alternating field to achieve a defined, in particular homogeneous heat distribution.
The abovementioned problem has a disadvantageous effect in particular when comparatively dry products need to be heated or when the geometry of the cooking vessel does not exhibit rotational symmetry, or only exhibits a small amount of rotational symmetry. When designing the described systems for inductively heating food, there is therefore often a conflict of aims which consists in on the one hand designing said conducting layer in such a way that defined heating, such as heating which is as homogeneous as possible, for example, of the area of interest results, but on the other hand achieving an efficiency which is as high as possible of the electromagnetic coupling of the cooking vessel to the alternating field achieving the desired currents. Similar conflicts of aims also result when realizing other withdrawable elements in induction ovens, where it is likewise necessary to find a compromise between good coupling to an external electromagnetic alternating field and efficient utilization of the electrical energy transmitted.